Scott's Ramblings
Famed LetsRun.com journalist Scott "Slicko" Anderson is back to his rambling ways recounting his first 3 days on the road trip of a lifetime. Scott is no longer allowed to claim to be a partner of LetsRun.com after he was seen running races in Chicago, Il for Universal Sole.

Thursday

It’s tough living in the shadows of Weldon Johnson.  My old roommate paces Paula Radcliffe to a world record at the Chicago marathon and gets pages of press and hours of press coverage.  Meanwhile, I pace my friend Marta for the last 11 miles of the same race, in which she pr'ed by 16 minutes (going down from 4:20 to 4:02 I think was 8 times as big an improvement as Paula made), and I’m considered a recreational runner. (Incidentally, this has been my longest run in the past half year).

So this trip was a chance to take a nostalgic trip back to the world of elite runners, but now we’re traveling in style-hanging with the marketing genius Chris Lear, and cult hero Weldon Johnson, we get the perks and groupies that are normally reserved for rock stars.

The sponsor list reads like a who’s who in athletic prestige brands: Gatorade, Adidas, Running times, Boulder Beer, and Cruise America (it took me a while to realize that we were driving in a Cruise America RV, not a Winnebago). Weldon picks me up from the Denver airport Thursday evening. It’s a relief to be in a car that’s messier than my Ford-refreshing after being around super anal retentive b-school crowd. (My theory is that it stifles creativity).

Once we arrive at Lear’s place, he proudly displays the loot: 10 cases of excellent beer. Can we finish 240 in 4 days and about an equal number of Gatorade and propel, as well as several boxes of Gatorade bars, which are an improvement on peanut butter rice krispie bars.  We briefly discuss having a contest to see who can survive eating only off of the initial food supply and decide Dan Wilson and Wejo are the only candidates, as Shawn and Liz are way too high maintenance.

The obligatory pre-road trip night event’s at Rio and then the Walrus-we meet up with another roadie Johnny Carson and unsuccessfully try to make Batliner feel like he’ll be missing out as we try to sleep 8 unshowered adults in an RV with no running water. What are we getting into?  The night is uneventful, aside from a constant stream of women approaching John Carson, who apparently has established himself as the most eligible bachelor in Boulder after only three months enrolled in the masters of physiology at CU.

Friday

I’m a little apprehensive about the pre-departure long run with these guys, but my fears are unfounded.  A short-winded Lear admits to recently testing 56 for his VO2 max, so the pace stays easy.

We pick up Jeff Bivens, the coach from Denver, at CU’s track reasonably close to the estimated time, and then head to John Carson’s to pick up him and the two girls, Shawn and Liz.

Now the fun part: stocking the van. The beverage cases in the shower reach to the ceiling. I haven’t felt this cool and in touch with my party self since doing a keg stand at Honerkamp’s house last year (my initial claim to fame in business school, aside from being the only person whose lifetime earnings are five figures is that I’m the only person to have done a keg stand in the last 2 years-a correlation perhaps?) In the excitement of trying to get some photo opps, the Danimal and I forget to lock the shower door (rule #7 given to us by the totalitarian Chris Lear).  As we turn right into the Safeway parking lot, the cases cascade down.  Three beers broken, 237 to go.  Probabaly not a good omen for the level of cleanliness that will be maintained on this trip. Add a map and paper towels to the shopping list. Needless to say, we don’t get going till 1.5 hours after etd and our hopes of partying it up this eveing in Lawrence, KS are diminished.

First day of driving is uneventful, aside from nonstop listening to Eminem’s Lose Yourself (we regret not having contacted him for sponsorship-I think he makes a point of alluding to a mobile home in every one of his songs), watching Orange county, a cheesy film with some surprisingly good insights on the keys to being a good artist (don’t leave the roots that inspire your creativity, even if there are downsides) and a bit of Steve-O’s Jackass.  We take 70 east through Kansas--Lear takes the first five hours(his driving’s improved dramatically since college), then Danimal takes the wheel getting us up to a smooth 85 at various stretches.  Always a good indicator of safety when you’re passing camaros in your RV.  I make it a point to take the second to last stint, so that I get join the pre-party festivities as we roll into KS.  Weldon earns a new nickname LEADJO, as he makes up for my conservative driving with a lead foot for the last 100 miles. Jeff calls his former athlete Steve form KU to scout out the party scene on Lawrence’s Massachusetts ave.  It’s not quite Sixth street in Austin, but it has a surprisingly non-puritan feel for Jim Ryun’s hometown and congressional district.  We end up in line at a bar called the Library right behind some members of the KU team, who were not aware of the presence.  Danimal is immediately recognized by a recently clean-cut Charlie Gruber.  Gruber also identifies Weldon with even more surprise: “Hey there’s the guy who does runwithus.com!”  (Ahh, the classic feigning of ignorance by a message board geek who’s embarrassed of his addiction.)

So, yes, I know what you’re thinking. A line for a bar in the middle of Kansas? And even more offensively, they’re asking for a $4 cover.  But they compensate with $1 natty lites.  The highlight is when Lose Yourself comes on.  We take control of the bar, and, as frequently happens when a guy like Dan Wilson struts his Honerkamp-esque moves, there’s some aggressive female interest. But she quickly is overwhelmed as a few male members of the crew tries to freeride off of Dan’s boyish good looks: the attempt to sandwich this girl for a photo opportunity fails, but a good time nonetheless.

We head back to the RV, which is parked in a nearby strip mall , right next to a muscle car that Danimal and I take turns posing next to-late night delusions of coolness. We rehash highlights of the night and start planning tomorrow’s morning run and possible options for showering. I ask why we can’t use the shower on the RV, and Lear says we need to go to an RV park for water.  Weldon: “No we don’t. I washed my hands in the bathroom sink.”  Lear responds: “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, that’s antifreeze.”  Nice. The litigious Wejo threatens a lawsuit.

Saturday

We wake up to a good sunny day, but I still regret last night’s confident offer to a workout with the Danimal and Wejo.  Granted, I’m fresh off some solid workouts with guys in Chicago, but the am fartlek without my flats is not appealing. We decide to split the group and hit two different coffee shops so as to be more subtle in our mission to use some facilities with the running water.

Another clutch move by our Lawrence master, Jeff, who navigates us as we head to the famous Rim-Rock farm, host of the 98 NCAA meet.  Somehow Liz and Shawn look a lot cuter in their new adidas gear than the guys do, but we’re all pretty psyched.  After a bit of a warmup on the course, Dan, Weldon and I decide to hit the dirt roads for the fartlek: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 minutes with half rest (a workout courtesy of Dan’s coach Pete Rea at ZAPfitness). Midway through the first one I opt for a right turn. Ouch, I thought Kansas was supposed to be flat.  The Danimal proceeds to demonstrate why he was 14th at NCAAs cross country last year and why Weldon and I finished 28th and 24th respectively in our conference championships senior year. (Incidentally, that was the meet that John Carson passed me in the last straightaway at Van Cortlandt park and said “Come on Slick, Heps, Senior year.”)

By the time we got back to Lawrence, rumors were floating around that Dan Wilson’s effort had been equivalent to Adam Goucher’s masterpiece here 4 years ago.  We plan to run the course tomorrow and set a high bar for the guys Monday.

To read the official recap of the first 24 hours of the trip click here

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